Alpine days with dinner on my mind

Alpine days with dinner on my mind

Saturday 10 May 2008 19.23 EDT
First published on Saturday 10 May 2008 19.23 EDT

We are 13 weeks out from the Olympic Games now and the final countdown to Beijing began when I started the Giro d'Italia, which kicked off yesterday in Sicily and ends in Milan on 1 June. It is the biggest part of my Olympic preparation, basically the whole of May. Racing for three weeks is as good as it gets for building the fitness and strength that will carry me through until August.

I'm not the only potential Olympic team member following this line of preparation: Steve Cummings and Geraint Thomas, with whom I hope to rided the team pursuit in August, are here, and so is Mark Cavendish, my partner when we won the Madison at the world championships in Manchester back in March. What we are all looking to build here is endurance.

The stages are long, with eight over 200km, and three just under. On Thursday, the stage from Potenza to Peschici is 265km. It's day after day after day of riding, which you couldn't do in training on your own, and certainly not if you were pushing yourself. Here, you have to get up in the morning, eat breakfast, pull your shorts on and get out on your bike.

There's no 'I'm too tired' or 'I can't be bothered today'. You have to do three weeks, and in the last week I know I will go to places my body rarely goes when the race goes through the Alps to the north and east of Milan. The first time I rode the Giro there was one Alpine stage to Livigno when the winner took seven hours and I was out there for nearly eight.

You finish the race, and all that is in the bank. Even though it takes a little while to come out in your form, it takes a long time to fade away.

That endurance matters, even though the pursuit races - individual and team - at the Olympics last only four minutes or less, because it's a programme of six days' racing. There are three rounds each in the pursuits, plus the Madison, which is about an hour and comes last in the schedule. Backing up will be really important if I am to get near my aim of three golds.

I'll go on road racing after the Giro for as long as possible before Beijing: I'll rest, then do two more stage races and the national title.

Four years ago, that would have been too much. Before Athens I just rode the Tour of Switzerland, which is 10 days, then had 11 weeks track training, and lost form towards the end. Four years ago I wouldn't have considered stage racing four weeks before the Olympics, but now I know I only need about two weeks preparation on the track.

As you get older, you realise how much you can handle. Every year in the last four or five, I've pushed myself a little bit more. Even before this year's Worlds I was pushing the boundaries a little rather than just settle for what we did four years ago. It's like the Tour de France - I first rode in 2006, and sat on the wheels to see if I could get through.

Last year I knew I could get in the breaks and try in the time trials.

Riding the Giro isn't quite like the Tour. The hotels are a bit crap and there is a massive difference between the south and the north of Italy. The accommodation is a bit basic, but it's all there is. One thing is the same wherever you are, though, and that's the food, which is fantastic, as opposed to the Tour where 90 per cent of the hotel food is simply awful. It feels as if they grow up with cooking here, whereas in France feeding the riders is a secondary thing.

After eight hours in the mountains, dinner is one of the things that you can focus on to help you get through the day, although the other thing in my mind will be the Games. That's what this is all about and I'll always have my eye on that bigger picture.